SAVE Plan Deadline: You Have 90 Days From Your Notice to Pick a New Repayment Plan

Borrowers enrolled in the SAVE Plan, a federal income-driven repayment plan (SAVE), have at least 90 days from the date on their loan servicer’s notice to move to a new repayment plan, the U.S. Department of Education said in a March 27, 2026 announcement. Servicers began issuing those notices on July 1, 2026, and each notice states that borrower’s own 90-day deadline. The free printable with this story lays the federal dates out on one page.

Miss the window, and the Department said your servicer moves you automatically: a borrower “who do[es] not transition plans within the 90-day period communicated by their servicer will be automatically enrolled into either the Standard Repayment Plan, or the new Tiered Standard Plan.” You do not have to wait for the notice. The Department said a borrower who wants to switch earlier “may contact their servicer at any time to enroll in a lawful repayment plan.”

What the SAVE Plan 90-day deadline means

A federal court blocked the SAVE Plan on March 10, 2026. Federal Student Aid (FSA), the office that runs the federal loan program, says the order prevented the Department “from implementing the SAVE Plan and parts of other income-driven repayment (IDR) plans,” and that borrowers whose loans are in forbearance because they enrolled in or applied for SAVE “must select a new repayment plan and begin repaying their loans.”

The 90 days is not one shared national date. The Department said servicers “will notify borrowers of their specific 90-day deadline,” so the date on your own notice is the one that counts. The announcement said the guidance goes to “the 7.5 million borrowers who enrolled in” SAVE.

Applying for an income-driven plan is faster if you let the Department pull your tax data, FSA says: the process moves quicker “if borrowers provide consent for the Department to obtain their federal tax information directly from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).”

The choices fall into two groups. The new Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP), launched July 1, 2026, and the Tiered Standard Plan are the replacements the Department built; the older Income-Based Repayment (IBR), Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR) and Pay As You Earn (PAYE) plans stay open for now.

SAVE Plan timeline from the court order to the 2028 plan changes

Date	What happens	Source
Tue., March 10, 2026	Federal court blocks SAVE and parts of other income-driven repayment plans	Federal Student Aid
Fri., March 27, 2026	Department announces the exit guidance and the 90-day transition	U.S. Department of Education
Wed., July 1, 2026	Servicer notices begin; RAP and the Tiered Standard Plan launch	U.S. Department of Education
Sat., July 1, 2028	ICR and PAYE plans end, no later than this date	Federal Student Aid

On July 1, 2026, FSA also raised the auto-pay interest rate reduction from 0.25% to 1% for borrowers with Direct Loans disbursed on or after July 1, 2012. The New York State Office of the Attorney General said that “on July 1, 2026, borrowers who are enrolled in the SAVE plan began receiving notifications.”

What your 90-day deadline looks like by notice date

Your servicer’s notice gives your real deadline. The examples below add 90 days to a notice date so you can see how the window falls; they are not official dates for any single borrower.

If your notice is dated	90 days later lands on
Wed., July 1, 2026	Tue., Sept. 29, 2026
Sat., Aug. 1, 2026	Fri., Oct. 30, 2026
Tue., Sept. 1, 2026	Mon., Nov. 30, 2026
Thu., Oct. 1, 2026	Wed., Dec. 30, 2026
Sun., Nov. 1, 2026	Sat., Jan. 30, 2027
Tue., Dec. 1, 2026	Mon., March 1, 2027

Mark your own date on the 2027 printable yearly calendar or the December 2026 printable calendar once your notice arrives.

Repayment plans you can switch to after SAVE

FSA lists the income-driven plans still open and their terms. Under RAP, FSA says, a monthly payment is “1% to 10% of adjusted gross income divided by 12 months, minus $50 for each dependent.” The Department said RAP “ensures that borrowers who make full, on-time monthly payments will be shielded from runaway interest and are able to make progress toward reducing the principal balance.”

Plan	Monthly payment	Repayment period
Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP)	1% to 10% of adjusted gross income (AGI), divided by 12, minus $50 per dependent	30 years
Income-Based Repayment (IBR), borrowed July 1, 2014 to before July 1, 2026	10% of discretionary income	20 years
IBR, borrowed before July 1, 2014	15% of discretionary income	25 years
Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR)	20% of discretionary income	25 years
Pay As You Earn (PAYE)	10% of discretionary income	20 years

FSA marks one caution on the table: the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) “eliminates the ICR and PAYE Plans in the future (no later than July 1, 2028).” Eligibility also depends on the loan type, so check your own loans on StudentAid.gov before you choose.

The Department also described the Tiered Standard Plan with fixed terms of “10, 15, 20, or 25 years” based on a borrower’s total outstanding loan balance.

What happens if you miss the SAVE Plan deadline

If you do nothing within the 90 days, your servicer chooses for you. The Department said borrowers who do not transition in time “will be automatically enrolled into either the Standard Repayment Plan, or the new Tiered Standard Plan.” If you would rather pick, FSA says eligible borrowers “can apply for or recertify under the Income-Based Repayment (IBR), Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR), and Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Repayment Plans,” and you can start before a notice arrives by contacting your servicer.

For other federal money dates this season, our guide to the 2027 tax brackets and retirement limits and the 2027-28 Free Application for Federal Student Aid dates cover the IRS figures and the student-aid calendar.